Technology is moving so fast that one group is being left behind - the elderly. Chinese search engine giant Baidu is leading the charge to narrow the digital divide with a new feature introduced to its smart display products today.
Xiaodu Smart Display, a smart speaker with a screen used by millions of people in China, was updated today to include a "senior mode" to help this group have easier and more equal access to Internet information and services.
In this mode, the screen displays larger fonts and a clearer interface, making it easier for seniors to watch news and videos.
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In response to the common characteristics of elderly people such as poor pronunciation of Mandarin and dialect, " senior mode" is also optimized to pick up the voice, so that it can understand their intentions more quickly and accurately.
In addition, the content resources under " senior mode" are also screened and recommended, and access to authoritative experts' health science, so that the elderly can check disease knowledge.
Currently, this mode is available on Xiaodu Smart Display X10, and Xiaodu Smart Display X8/1S/1C and carrier version devices will be updated later.
Although mobile Internet is becoming more and more popular in China, there is still a huge group of people who are gradually "marginalized". The elderly are one of them due to the gradual decline of their physiological functions.
With the rapid growth of China's aging population, the "digital divide" faced by the elderly is becoming more and more prominent. To this end, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology recently made it clear that smart devices are encouraged to provide "senior citizen mode" to help the elderly reach out to technology.
Baidu said they set up a project team in August this year to develop a "senior mode", which was completed in early December and entered the internal testing phase. The feature is now available on most Xiaodu Smart Displays.
Xiaodu Smart Speaker is currently the most widely used smart speaker in China, with Canalys data showing that 8.63 million devices were shipped in the first half of the year, more than Tmall's 7.56 million and Xiaomi's 6.43 million.
Xiaodu Smart Display with display shipped 5.6 million in the first half of the year, ranking first in the global market, more than the sum of Amazon and Google.
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